So, this is a new Dramione fanfiction. I felt inspired to start another story as I have a bit of block with my other one. Here's hoping you like this one too! Please R&R! :) x
Chapter 1 - The Unexpected Meeting
"Please, don't do this," she pleaded with the boy. "You are better than this."
"You don't know who I am, or what I can do," he shouted back at her.
"You're wrong, I do know you. I know that deep down this is not what you want, you're only doing this because of your family. Please, stand up for yourself. Find your spine and tell them no," she yelled. Tears were choking her, but she did not let them fall. She would not give him the satisfaction.
"I need to. This can't go on. It's over, Hermione," the boy said, his grey eyes locked on her brown, resolve solidifying behind them. He turned on his heel, and left her standing by the tree at the lake. It was such a beautiful day, but Hermione had never felt colder in her life.
Hermione awoke with a start, with her face, hair and pillow wet from tears. She wondered how long these nightmares would go on for. It had been three years since the battle and since she decided to return to Hogwarts for her final year. It had been two years since that day at the tree by the lake, and she still felt haunted by the words that he said to her that day. He was a different person after the battle; he seemed lighter and freer and it was a sight to behold when he smiled, and she was lucky that she often got to see that. However, she knew that she was playing with fire when they started their secret relationship, but she had never envisioned that she would get burned in the way that she was, and she never thought that the fire would consume her in her sleep on a regular basis. The truth was, she was not over him and she did not think that she ever would be able to get over him – his smile, his smell, his laugh. She shook her head and looked at the empty space beside her in bed and sighed. She had not heard from or seen Draco since that day, although she had read articles written about him in the Daily Prophet, about how well he was doing in the Ministry and how he got married to some pureblood witch. Seeing the moving pictures of him smiling and laughing with his wife could only be compared to being stabbed in the gut, Hermione thought to herself, after she had got out of bed, wiped her face and walked downstairs to see his picture on her copy of the newspaper which had been delivered. It only reinforced that she was never good enough for him, and that she never would be.
She was thankful that whilst they both worked in the Ministry, they worked in completely different departments. She was flourishing in the department for International Magical Cooperation, whilst he was climbing up the ranks in the department for Magical Law Enforcement. It was no surprise really, they were the most intelligent people in their year, both prefects and the Head Boy and Girl when they returned to Hogwarts. McGonagall had been so wonderful to Draco, Hermione remembered, when people were so angry at him being Head Boy. She said that the fact he changed the path he was going down showed great courage and an inner belief in what was right and good, and that made him perfect for the job. They had become so close that year, and Hermione had really thought they had something special, until that day when he left her at the lake.
She shook her head and looked in the mirror. No time for this nonsense, she told herself. She had a big day in front of her and could not afford to be distracted. The department was hosting the International Confederation of Wizards for a conference to discuss ways of adapting to the weak, but non-the-less still present threat of Death Eaters. Even though Voldemort was dead and gone, they could not allow what happened last time, with Death Eaters being able to assemble at the press of a Dark Mark. There was international acknowledgement that legal loopholes had to be closed and Hermione had been given the opportunity to arrange this conference and present possible solutions. She had worked too hard on this to let nightmares of Malfoy or his smile in a picture disarm her thoughts. She quickly ate breakfast, put on her carefully selected outfit for the day and Flooed to the Ministry of Magic.
On arrival to the Ministry, Hermione noticed that the atrium was much busier than usual and to her delight, there were many different languages being spoken. She stopped and smiled to herself. She revelled in this – while she loved learning magical pursuits, another passion of hers was learning languages and she absolutely adored being around people from different countries. Whilst everyone thought after the Battle that Hermione would follow Harry and Ron into the Auror office, she knew that International Magical Cooperation would be a better suit as it fitted both her intelligence in the magical world and her passions from the muggle world, and she was right as she so loved her job. She arrived at the Ministry two hours early to prepare, but the two hours seemed to fizzle away far too quickly, and she still had so much to do. She was running about from office to office, and down to the large room where the conference would be taking place to drop off and pick up large piles of documentation to distribute amongst the delegates. She was making her last trip up to her office to drop off a large pile of extra work that only she was able to do and to quickly touch up her make-up before the start of the conference, when she stopped suddenly at the end of the corridor. There was a familiar figure standing in front of her office door, who looked like he was staring at the name on the door with a smile on his face. The pile of extra work slipped out of her hands on the floor, which made the young man jump and turn around to find the source of the noise. Their eyes locked, grey on brown and the air between them seemed to crackle.
I am really excited for you guys to read the next couple of chapters! Hope you enjoyed this one!